Tuesday, 29 July 2014

¿Cuál es la situación real entre Israel y Palestina?



Prueba de sabiduria: ¿Sabias que no todos los Judios son Sionistas? y ¿Sabias tambien que no todos los Palestinos, incluidos aquellos que han muerto y los que estan luchando por seguir con vida en Gaza, estan de acuerdo con Hamas?

Pues como en Hollywood pasa aqui, sabeis como a ciertos actores acaban encasilladolos porque actuan tan bien en los papeles de villanos que luego no consiguen otro papel que no sea de malo..Pues en el mundo normal tambien se encasilla a la gente.

La verdad es no todos los Palestinos apollan los ideales de Hamas, y no todos los Judios son Sionistas.

Pero dicho esto, mientras los Israelis estan comodos sentado en sus sillones, con copas en las manos en la frontera de Gaza, animando la masacre de familias y bebes Palestinos, es necesario poner las cosas en perspectiva y ver la vida como realmente es. 

Esto es un hecho real que fue por accidente grabado en la entrevista de CNN con la reportera Diana Magnay; mientras ella informaba de la situacion presente en ese momento, se oia claramente detras de ella a los Israelis animando los bombardeos.
 
Magnay incluso tuvo graves problemas por un tweet que mando desde el escenario. Inmediatamente tuvo que eliminarlo y enseguida a ella la trasladaros fuera de la situacion de Gaza, la mandarón a Moscu.
Esto es lo que decia su tweet:-

“Diana Magnay-@dimagnayCNN
Israelitas en monte encima de Sderot animando mientras las bombas caen sobre Gaza; me han amenazado, destruiran nuestro coche si digo algo equivocado. Escoria.”

¿Porque, nos preguntamos hechandonos las manos a la cabeza estan muriendo personas inocentes con ninguna coneccion con Hamas, incluyendo cientos de mujeres y niños, incluidos 20 miembros de la misma familia y siguen bombardeando y masacrando?


Comenzo cuando tres adolestes fuerón asesinados.

En un serio y tragico incidente, tres jovenes israelitas fueron raptados y asesinados.
Con ninguna prueba en absoluto, Israel culpo a Hamas de los hechos y para vengarse, de inmediato raptaron a un niño Palestino de 14 años de un plueblo vecino a Jerusalem, le pegaron, lo torturaron y lo quemaron vivo.

Estos incidentes supuestamente son la razon que dio Israel para comenzar las ofensivas de attaque a Gaza que aun siguen.

Ha salido a la luz que los autores de la matanza de los tres adolescentes Israelitas, aunque han sido identificados con veteranos de Hamas, actuaron sin el conociemiento ni concentimiento del liderazgo de Hamas.

Hay fuentes que aseguran que el govierno de Netanyahu desde el principio sabia todo esto pero usaron la situacion como una oportunidad para avivar la locura entre el publico Israeli y de esta manera ellos les dejarian atacar Gaza y continuarian a a trabajar para conseguir sus verdaderos objetivos.


“Se trata de defensa propia”

Mientras Israel insiste que “Operacion Protective Edge” es por la defensa propia y que “Hamas empezo todo en primer lugar,” tenemos que mirar mas profundamente a la historia completa antes de decidir quien debe llevarse la culpa y quien es posiblemente inocente.

Aunque es verdad que un pais tiene derecho a defenderse ¿No os parece que estamos viendo algo que va mas aya de la defensa-propia? No podemos ni comenzar a comparar numeros de muertos de cada lado porque la balanza se hunde de un solo lado, tanto que da miedo. En estos momentos la cifra de muertos Palestinos sobrepasa los 1000 de solo esta presente “Operacion”, la mayor parte de estos inocentes son niños y bebes. ¿Como, nos preguntamos puede considerar a un niño o un bebe una amenaza a la nacion de Israel? Buena pregunta.

Mientras que el UN Charter se reserva el derecho de fuerza para su Miembros del Consejo de Seguridad, y paises independientes que si pueden actuar en defensa-propia cuando estos estan siendo amenazados, la reaccion deve siempre ser en proporcion con la amenaza que el pais esta sufriendo y solo puede ser por poco tiempo, hasta que un agente de la UN interviene en la situacion.

Si observais la “Reaccion Defensiva” de Israel en la situacion actual, todos podemos ver que es desproporcionada con la amenazas en cuestion, literalmente desproporcionada por 100/1. Cuando Israel busca “defensa-propia” como en la situacion actual, nunca es por un periodo corto, siguen bombardeando continuamente durante semanas si cesar..Mientras que su famoso “Iron Dome”intercepta la mayor parte de los misiles que les viene de Hamas.

Cuando se habla de los “Altos al Fuego”, Israel nunca le da una seria atencion al asunto.

For ejemplo en los ultimos dias, solo 20 minutos antes de comenzar un “Alto al Fuego”, Israel llevo acabo un enorme bombardeo atacando el vecindario llamado Shijaiyah en Gaza, destrozando un complejo entero de edificios que se puede ver en YouTube Aqui.

Obviamente, las escalas estan tan a favor de Israel en todos los sentidos por varias razones:

Israel tiene sofisticados y modernos equipos Militares. Tienen helicopteros, aviones de luchas, tanques y su propio sistema de anti-misil de defensa, mientras que Hamas y cualquier otro grupo en Gaza cuentan solo con armas de la Edad de la Piedra y usan misiles “hechos en casa”.

Y ahi esta la gran historia de siempre.. ¿Porque un pais que actua meramente en “defensa propia”, necesita bloquear y militarmente ocupar territorios que pertenecen a otras personas, literalmente hablando durante decadas, si realmente es en defensa propia?

“Una Nacion de paz y Amor”

Segun Israel, ellos son una nacion de paz y amor, ¿pero que han hecho ellos para facilitar la paz? 

Dejando de lado la situacion con Palestina, en la breve historia del Pais Israeli, han repetidamente invadido a sus vecinos incluidos Egipto en 1956, Siria, Jordania y Egipto (otra vez en 1967). Invadiero Libano tres veces en 1978, 1982 y en el 2006.

Durante los años han lanzado misiles aereos contra Iraq y Siria con ninguna consequencia para ellos mismos.  ¿Esto a vosotros os parece una nacion de Paz y Amor?

Otro punto, es que según Israel, ellos hacen todo lo posible para evitar muertes de civiles. Por ejemplo dicen que avisan a la gente para que huyan y desalojen antes de atropellarles a bombas y arrancarles la vida. Los IDF (Fuerza de Defensa de Israel) tiran lo que llaman una “Pequeña” bomba a una casa para avisar a la familia que deven desalojar, antes de tirar una version bastante mas grande y derrumbar las casas y edificio completamente. Miradlo en YouTube video para que os de un ejemplo de lo que son sus practicas. Si os parece algo lento el video, pasarlo a 1.20 para que podais ver como hechan por tierra una casa ¿Como puede esto ser considerado lucha contra un enemigo?

Te hace pensar que todo esto es con la idea de destrozar la ciudad entera, paso a paso sin que quede nada detras.

Por lo visto lo que ellos llaman “Roof Knocking”, “Tocarte al Tejado” no salva personas, ya que el 17 de Julio 3 niños murieron mientras jugaban en el tejado de sus casas en el vecindario de Sabra gracias a este “Aviso”.

Dan folletos o usan los medios de comunicacion para avisar a las personas de que deven huir minutos antes de que ellos atacan. ¿Huir a donde exactamente? La zona de Gaza es relativamente pequeña. ¿Donde se supone que deven ir los residentes civiles cuando ocurren los ataques, a donde van a huir? Estan encerrados entre paredes como si de una pecera se tratara y cuando Israel ataca es como disparar a “Peces encerrados en un Barril”.

Inclusos niños jugando al futbol en la playa son masacrados ¿que tiene esto que ver con defensa propia?

Aparte de todo esto sus tacticas casi nunca salvan una vida civil, tampoco los metodos que usan son aceptables bajo las Leyes Internacionales.

Dicen, que la Ley Internacional prohibe ataques militares si hay alto riego de victimas civiles y obviamente si estan bombardeando una ciudad densamente poblada, con miles de personas atrapadas en esta pequeña zona de la que no pueden salir, esta claro que hay un riego extremadamente alto.

Tambien, bajo Ley Internacional, consta que las partes involucradas deven siempre permitir a los civiles escapar a una zona segura, pero en Gaza hay severas limitaciones para escapar ya que es una jaula donde no se puede entrar ni salir del territorio, estos inocentes no tienen manera de escapar, huir o esconderse.

En relacion al conflicto actual, se debe saber que la mayor parte de las victimas, civiles, han sido masacres ocurridos en lugares que jamas bajo Ley Internacional devieron atacar en primer lugar; como cafeterias, hospitales, hogar de minusvalidos, casas de personas, bloques de apartamentos y muchos mas lugares. Estos lugares nunca devieron ser blancos.

Asi que devemos preguntarnos con toda sinceridad, ¿porque estan pasando estas cosas?

Gaza esta sentada encima de un “Tesoro Escondido”

Estas pasadas semanas, los medios de comunicacion han apuntado nuestra atencion literalmente hablando a “un Tesoro Escondido” de Reserva de Gas Natural localizado justo fuera de la Costa de Gaza.

Por un lado, en el 2000, British Gas (BG) descubrio lo que se dice que son $4 billones en Reservas de Gas Natural, con el Fondo de Inversiones Palestino (PIF) y British Gas (BG), los dos invertiendo en el projecto, y con BG reteniendo el 60% de los derechos a este gas.

En los ultimos años Israel por lo visto sufre de una crisis de energia, que solo puedo empeorar por dia que pasa, como bien dice esta cartaescrita por dos cientificos Israelis. Un experto de cartas lee y traduce, “Creemos que Israel debe incrementar su uso (domestico) de Gas Natural antes del 2020 y no deve exportar gas,” con otra parte leyendo y traduciendo lo mismo “ Los valores de las Autoridades de Gas Natural escasean. Hay una diferencia de 100 a 150 billones por metros cubicos entre la demanda de prediccion que se presentaron al comitee y las predicciones mas actuales. Las reservas de gas probablemente no lleguen a durar ni 40 años!

Asi que ahora Israel necesita energia desesperadamente y estamos mirando exactamente a las personas que tienen lo que Israel necesita!

Poco despues de las elecciones de Hamas en el 2006, Israel comenzo negociaciones con BG, Israel insistia que ellos querian el gas, pero por el otro lado, que ninguno de los beneficios de este gas deveria llegar a las manos de Hamas. Y por esta misma razon, Israel necesita deshacerse a toda costa de Hamas, problema solucionado y de esta forma tendran mucho Gas Natural en sus manos. Suena simple, ¿pero es realmente asi de simple?

Es muy interesante darse cuenta de que las negociaciones de Israel con BG realmente empezaron a la misma vez que otra gran masacre conocida como “Operation Cast Lead” comenzo en Junio del 2008. Mientras las negociaciones se llevaban acabo, Israel mato a 1,417 Palestinos, desplazo a mas de 50,000 civiles de Gaza y destruyo 4,000 casas con sus ataques aereos, seguido por una matanza de invasion de terreno, como estamos viendo ahora mismo en la presente operacion. Israel dice que estas invasiones son para asegurar la zona de donde se lanzan los misiles desde Gaza, pero esta claro esto esta muy lejos de la verdad.

De hecho es probable que estas operaciones de brutales matanzas son meramente los medios para alcanzar la meta final de la apropriacion por parte de Israel del Gas Natural de los Palestinos, que no tiene nada que ver con defensa-propia sino mas bien con defensa de intereses.

Autor: Anne Sewell
Traducción: Carolina Salem
Lee el original

Monday, 28 July 2014

What is the Israeli/Palestinian situation actually all about?

Did you know that not every Israeli is a Zionist? Also, did you know that not every Palestinian, including those struggling to survive on the Gaza strip, supports Hamas? What follows is opinion, with a whole load of facts thrown in.

You know how in Hollywood, certain film stars end up being typecast, because they play a villain so well, and find they cannot get any other part unless it is a villainous one. Well it seems people in the normal world get typecast too. However, quite literally, not all Palestinians follow Hamas’ ideals, and not all Jews are Zionists.

But, while Israelis sit in their armchairs, beer in hand, at the Gaza border, cheering as families and babies are slaughtered, we really need to start putting things in perspective and seeing life as it actually is. This action, incidentally, was even caught on an interview with CNN reporter, Diana Magnay – as she explained the current situation in the region, the cheering could be heard going on in the background.

Magnay even got into trouble for a tweet she sent from the scene. She immediately deleted it, just before they relocated her away from the Gaza situation all the way to Moscow. Basically this is what it said:

“Diana Magnay - @dimagnayCNN
Israelis on hill above Sderot cheer as bombs land on #gaza; threaten to ‘destroy our car if I say a word wrong’. Scum.”

Why, we ask, throwing our hands in the air, are innocent people with no connection to Hamas, including hundreds of women and children, and even in one case 20 members of the very same family, being bombed and slaughtered?

It started when three teenagers were murdered

In a seriously tragic incident, three young Israelis were kidnapped and murdered. With no evidence given, Israel placed the blame for this awful slaughter firmly on Hamas. Shortly after this, a 14 year old Palestinian boy from a town near Jerusalem was captured, beaten, tortured and burned alive, in some kind of tit-for-tat response.

These incidents were allegedly the start of the current and ongoing offensive by Israel against Gaza. However, it has since come to light that the perpetrators of the killing of those Israeli teenagers, while identified as veteran members of Hamas’ military wing, were actually a rogue element that likely acted without the knowledge and against the wishes of Hamas leadership.

Apparently some sources believe that the Netanyahu government knew about this all along and just wanted to use the situation to whip up the frenzy among the Israeli public that would then allow them to attack Gaza and continue to work towards their actual aims.

“It’s all about self-defense”

While Israel insists that “Operation Protective Edge” is all about self-defense, and that, “Hamas started the whole thing in the first place,” we need to look a little deeper into the whole story before deciding who should take blame, and who is possibly innocent.

While it is true that a country has the right to self-defense, are we not seeing something far beyond the defense of self here? Let’s not compare the numbers of the dead on each side, as the balance is so completely off, it is positively terrifying. Let’s just point out that now at least 1,000 Palestinians are dead from the current “operation,” the majority of which are innocents, and the number of course includes hundreds of children and babies. How can a child or a baby possibly be considered a threat to the mighty nation of Israel, you ask? Good question.

While the UN Charter does reserve the right of force for its Security Council members, and individual countries can act in self-defense when threatened, the response should be proportionate to the threat that country is facing and it should be short-term, until such time as UN agents can intervene in the situation.

Looking at Israel’s “defensive response” in the current situation, we can see that it is grossly disproportionate to the threat faced, literally by proportions of hundreds to one. When Israel seeks “self-defense,” it is never short-term and often goes on for weeks of constant and never-ending bombardment, while their famous “Iron Dome” intercepts most rockets coming their way from Hamas.

When talks of a ceasefire arise, Israel never really gives this any serious attention. For instance, in recent days, just 20 minutes before the beginning of a 12 hour ceasefire, Israel carried out a massive bombardment of Gaza's Shijaiyah neighborhood, leveling a building complex, which can be seen on YouTube here.

Obviously the scales are balanced mostly in Israel’s favor for so many reasons. They have a sophisticated modern military. They own helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, and have their anti-rocket defense system, while Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza have Stone Age weapons by comparison, often using “home-made” rockets.

And there is always the big story. Why does a country, acting in pure self-defense, need to blockade and militarily occupy territories belonging to other people for literally decades, if this is in self-defense? 
A series of maps showing how little is actually left for the Palestinians

 “Peace-loving nation”

According to Israel, they are a peace-loving nation, but what have they done so far to enable that peace? Without even touching on the Palestinian issue, in the country’s brief history they have repeatedly invaded their neighbors, including Egypt in 1956, Syria, Jordan and Egypt (again) in 1967. They invaded Lebanon three times, in 1978, 1982 and 2006. Over the years they have launched airstrikes against Iraq and Syria with no real come-back on them. Does that sound like a peace-loving nation to you?

Again, according to Israel, they do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian deaths. For instance they say they warn people to leave the area before they bomb the living hell out of it.

A regular practice of the IDF is to drop a “small” bomb on a house, to warn family members to leave their home before they drop a much larger version and raze the building to the ground. Watch this YouTube video for an example of this practice – if it goes a bit too slow for you, fast forward to 1.20 to see the house completely demolished. How is that about fighting any kind of enemy? It makes you think this is more about demolishing a city, step by step.

Apparently even this so-called “roof-knocking” does not always save people, as on July 17, three young children were killed while playing on the roof of their home in the Sabra neighborhood by just such a “warning.”

They hand out leaflets or use the media to warn people to flee or evacuate before they attack. Flee or evacuate to where exactly? The Gaza Strip is a relatively small place. Where are the residents supposed to go when these attacks happen? They are walled in, enclosed in the equivalent of a fish bowl and when Israel attacks, is it not so much like “shooting fish in a barrel” than anything else?

Even kids playing football on a beach are slaughtered, what does this have to do with self-defense?

Besides the fact that their tactics in most cases do not save civilian lives, the approaches they use are also not acceptable under international law. Said law prohibits a military attack if there is a high risk of civilian casualties and obviously if you are bombing a densely populated city, with thousands of people trapped in a small area, there is an extremely high risk.

Also under international law, it is stated that the warring parties involved must allow civilians to flee the area for safety. Yet, in Gaza, which has severe limits on all civilian access in and out of the territory, there is no way for these innocents to flee.

As for the current conflict, it should be noted that most civilian casualties have happened in places that should never have been targets in the first place, including cafés, hospitals, a home for the disabled, people’s houses and apartment buildings, and so on. None of these structures should ever have been a target, under international law.
So we must ask ourselves in all honesty, why is all this happening.

Gaza is sitting on a treasure-trove

In recent weeks, the media has brought to our attention a literal treasure-trove of natural gas reserves located just off the coast of Gaza.

On one hand, back in 2000, British Gas (BG) apparently discovered what was claimed to be $4 billion worth of natural gas reserves, with the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF) and BG, both investing in the project, and with BG holding 60 percent of the rights to said gas. On the other hand, in the last couple of years, Israel has apparently been suffering an energy crisis, which gets worse by the day, as per this letter written by two Israeli scientists.

An excerpt from the letter reads, “We believe Israel should increase its [domestic] use of natural gas by 2020 and should not export gas,” with another part reading, “The Natural Gas Authority’s estimates are lacking. There’s a gap of 100 to 150 billion cubic meters between the demand projections that were presented to the committee and the most recent projections. The gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years!”

So now Israel desperately needs energy and we look to who holds exactly what they need.
Shortly after the 2006 election of Hamas, Israel started negotiations with BG, with Israel insisting that they want the gas, but on the other hand, no part of the revenue from this gas should get into the hands of Hamas. Ergo, what Israel needs to do is get rid of Hamas. Problem solved, loads of natural gas on hand. This may sound a little simplistic, but is it really?

It is interesting to note that Israel’s negotiations with BG actually happened at the exact time that another awful slaughter known as “Operation Cast Lead” began in June 2008. While the negotiations were going on, Israel killed 1,417 Palestinians, displaced over 50,000 Gazans and destroyed over 4,000 homes with their air strikes, followed by a deadly ground invasion, just like we are seeing right now in the current operation. Israel says that these invasions are to secure areas where rockets are fired within the Gaza strip, but it seems nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact it seems far more likely these ongoing and brutal operations are merely a means towards the eventual goal of Israel’s appropriation of Palestinian natural gas, which has nothing to do with self-defense, and everything to do with self-interest.

Sources on Palestinian natural gas:
Other related news reported by Anne Sewell:


Wednesday, 23 July 2014

Traveling Around in a Different Style in the United Kingdom [Videos]

Traveling Around in a Different Style in the United Kingdom [Videos]

While buses and trains are a great way to
get around in the United Kingdom, there are more interesting and different ways of traveling around in style. Here are just a few of the options available to tourists.... read more

Monday, 21 July 2014

Impassioned plea to world leaders from Norwegian doctor working in Gaza

This is a brief extract - go to article to read more:

"The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.

The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!..." :  read more

Friday, 18 July 2014

Europe airs concern on Gaza onslaught, aid offered by Denmark

As what they term the "spiral of violence" continues in Gaza, the Danish development ministry has said Friday that 11 million kroner ($2 million) in emergency aid will be given to Palestinian civilians trapped in the enclave. Other EU countries have also aired their concern in the media... Read more

Travel the Garden Route of the Western Cape, South Africa [Video]

Travel the Garden Route of the Western Cape, South Africa [Video]

When we travel the coastline between the “Mother City” of Cape Town, through the Western Cape to South Africa’s Eastern Cape, we experience an area of sheer delight, known quite simply as the Garden Route....
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Thursday, 17 July 2014

Travel to a Different Destination in Africa for Safari Fun

Travel to a Different Destination in Africa for Safari Fun

While some of the more popular countries instantly come to mind when speaking of safari holidays in Africa, maybe it’s time to travel to a different, lesser known but equally beautiful, destination for your vacation fun.  While many head for South Africa and Kenya, let’s try something new this year... read more